✿ Zentangle Quilt Tutorial

You might have seen some of the cool Zentangle designs on Flickr....or other quilter's blogs (check out this blog....mamacjt). Well, I thought Zentangling might help me pass the time during boring meetings, so I bought a couple of pens and some paper with the intention of getting my "Zen" on....That didn't happen yet. But I figured....Why not make a quilt that looks like a Zentangle design? I searched the internet and found quilters quilting Zentangle designs on the quilts, but not any that actually made a Zentangle quilt. So I've been working on this all week....

Presenting my Zentangle mini-quilt/wall hanging....;-D

I've never written a quilt tutorial before, but this basically how I did it. First, I cut a length of freezer paper approximately 25" long and drew the base of the Zentangle design--the outline rectangle and the "strings" inside. I used a medium point felt pen. The approximate dimensions of my design are 15" x 21".

Next, I taped the freezer paper design to the table and cut a piece of white fabric the same size and taped the fabric on top of the freezer paper. Using a pencil, I lightly sketched some of the strings from the paper onto the fabric. I didn't trace the whole design (though I guess I could have)....I just made light marks where the pieces would intersect and come together, and some basic guides for when I needed to glue down my pieces later.

At this point I made notes on the freezer paper regarding what sort of fabric I wanted for each piece (light, medium or dark). Then I cut out a few pieces from the paper and ironed them onto the appropriate fabric (using a dry iron). Be sure you are accurate when you cut....precision is important!!

After they had cooled, I cut out the pieces and began applying them to the white fabric, in their correct positions. I used a spray adhesive on the back of the pieces so that they would be semi-permanently mounted on the white fabric. Do NOT discard the freezer paper templates until you are completely done with the project--you may decided to change some fabric somewhere in your quilt and you will wish for that template again!! Don't ask how I know this....LOL.

I continued this process until I had all the pieces adhered to the background fabric.

Then I looked at it for two days, made a few changes, and got it ready for the quilting. I "squared up the top" so that there was about 1.5"-2" of white around my Zentangle design. Then I cut a piece of backing fabric and batting (I used white flannel because I didn't want it to be too thick) slightly larger than my quilt top and used a spray adhesive to "baste" it all together. Just a light spray of adhesive to the flannel and my top and backing were stuck in place.

I practiced a few different widths of satin stitching until I found the one I was most happy with and began stitching along the original "string" lines on the inside of the Zentangle design (using black thread).

Once these were done, I widened the stitch length and stitched around the perimeter of the design. Then I did a little quilting with white thread in the border and applied my binding and a hanging sleeve. I applied small black buttons in the corners to show the dots where normal pen/paper Zentangle designs begin.

This was a fun and easy project....I can see where it can be adapted to use more colorful fabrics with the black and whites. Maybe that will be my next project!!!